Encapsulation by Janus spheroids

TL;DR

This paper models the self-assembly of Janus spheroids for encapsulation, revealing how their shape and chemical properties influence encapsulation efficiency, with potential applications in drug delivery and materials science.

Contribution

It introduces a primitive model of encapsulation using Janus oblate spheroids and investigates their efficiency through Monte Carlo simulations, highlighting the impact of shape and chemical heterogeneity.

Findings

High encapsulation efficiency observed in simulations

Anisotropic shape and chemical composition affect morphology

Potential practical applications in drug delivery

Abstract

The micro/nano encapsulation technology has acquired considerable attention in the fields of drug delivery, biomaterial engineering, and materials science. Based on recent advances in chemical particle synthesis, we propose a primitive model of an encapsulation system produced by the self-assembly of Janus oblate spheroids, particles with oblate spheroidal bodies and two hemi-surfaces coded with dissimilar chemical properties. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we investigate the encapsulation system with spherical particles as encapsulated guests, for different densities. We study the anisotropic effect due to the encapsulating agent's geometric shape and chemical composition on the encapsulation morphology and efficiency. Given the relatively high encapsulation efficiency we find from the simulations, we believe that this method of encapsulation has potential practical value.